from Rangoon College,[1][2] in an era when only a select few could pursue a university education.

[note 1] After college, Ba Than chose to become a school teacher, spurning more lucrative career opportunities.

[2][3] He also dabbled as a writer and journalist on the side, writing several newspaper columns, short stories and poems under several pen names, and publishing his first novel B.A.

[2] But the paper failed, and he returned to teaching, ending up at Taingyintha High School in Kangyidaunt, near his native Bassein, by 1929.

[5]) It was then that he wrote his most famous book, Myanmar Yazawin, intended to be a high school textbook on Burmese history.

Harvey) as well as English translations of Siamese and Lan Na history.

[6] He had wanted to bring a more complete textbook than those in use at the time when most Burmese vernacular schools used a Burmese translation of Cocks's A Short History of Burma or an abridged version of the Hmannan chronicle by Ba Tin of Mandalay.

[10] The next update to the book was overseen by Ba Than's brother Sein in 1934, and published as the fifth edition.